STOCKTON - The Pacific athletic program finished eighth out of 10 schools in the Commissioner's Cup standings in its 42nd and final season in the Big West Conference.

Pacific will be returning its athletic programs to the West Coast Conference in August after assuming full membership in the Big West in 1971-72. The Commissioner's Cup was created in 1998-99 and weighs each athletic program's performance by assigning points based on conference standings in each sport. Pacific participated in 11 sports and accumulated 1,100 points, while Long Beach State claimed its third consecutive crown with 1,950 points in 14 sports.

Pacific claimed the first two Commissioner's Cups in 1999 and 2000, but has finished in sixth, seventh or eighth place since 2006, including an eighth-place finish last year. Pacific athletic director Ted Leland returned to the post in July of 2011 and believes the department is making steady improvements.

"We've hired seven new head coaches (in two years)," Leland said. "I think we've made a lot of progress and I'm proud of our coaches."

Despite the final tally, Pacific had very successful seasons in men's and women's basketball and ended a 16-year championship drought in men's golf last month. The men's basketball program reached the NCAA Tournament in coach Bob Thomason's final season, claiming three close games in Anaheim in the conference tournament to cut down the nets.

"It was unbelievable and you can't even describe the satisfaction of that," said new men's head coach Ron Verlin, who was Thomason's associate head coach for the past 19 seasons. "The last ride through was something very, very special to us and the main reason was it being coach Thomason's last year and us wanting to end on a positive note. We had such a great run in the Big West and we wanted it to end up like it did."

While the Pacific men's program had become an expected stalwart in the Big West over the past two decades, the women's program had sunk to the bottom of the standings since 2004 and finally emerged in 2011-12 to make a postseason appearance in the WNIT. Coach Lynne Roberts' team followed that up with the first regular-season title in program history and a Sweet 16 appearance in the WNIT.

"When you start at the very bottom, there is a different satisfaction when you climb the ladder and do something for the first time," Roberts said. "Within our program, it was a goal to win it for the first time ever in our last year, and we did."

The men's golf team ended a championship drought that dated back to 1996 by winning the Big West Tournament. The Tigers performed well at the NCAA Regionals and just missed out on qualifying for the NCAA Championships under eighth-year coach Brandon Goethals.

As the Tigers move on to the WCC, the Big West they leave behind is a work in progress. San Diego State, which initially had agreed to put all of its non-football sports in the conference, backed out in January and returned to the Mountain West Conference. That leaves the Big West with nine teams heading into next year with further expansion a possibility, but not a necessity.

"I don't think we're in any rush to do that," Big West commissioner Dennis Farrell said. "We'll look at opportunities, but we're not forced to make any moves. Conferences expand for one of two reasons: survival or opportunity, and we're certainly not in survival mode. If there is someone out there that makes us better, we'll pursue it."